Ben Curtis returns to the scene of greatest triumph

By Christine Brennan, USA TODAY

SANDWICH, England  For all the conversation about golf's big names and grand courses, it is the unexpected winner who is likely to be most associated with one specific championship, one unique place, one extraordinary week in a career.

By Dave Martin, AP

Ben Curtis celebrates after winning the British Open in 2003. Curtis was the first golfer in 90 years to win in his first major appearance.

Ben Curtis celebrates after winning the British Open in 2003. Curtis was the first golfer in 90 years to win in his first major appearance.

Ben Curtis arrived at that spot just this week. He came to Royal St. George's a bit apologetic, and more than a little tired. The two were related.

"I just got here and just got acclimated a little bit with the course and the grounds again … and I'm sure on Thursday, I'll be a bit more excited and a bit more fired up and ready to go."

It was in 2003 that Curtis, 396th in the world golf rankings, won the Open Championship in his first appearance in a major, becoming the first man since Francis Ouimet in the 1913 U.S. Open to win in his major debut. He has since won two more times on the PGA Tour and had a strong year in 2008 with five top-10 finishes, including a tie for second at the PGA Championship, and a berth on the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team.

But nothing he has done since can compare to what he did then, and now that the British Open has come back to Royal St. George's for the first time in eight years, Curtis, 34, comes with it — the course and the champion joined once again on the world stage.

If only he could recapture how he felt approaching that week in 2003, the lack of expectations, the pure joy of playing in his first major.

"I was just coming over to have fun," he said. "I wasn't really worrying about the golf. I had great form coming in. I was playing well in some events leading up to it. … But as far as expectations, really the only goal I had was to play four days and to see what it was like to play … it was my first major, just to see what it was like and just to enjoy it. I said, 'This is the last time I might play in it.' I didn't know it was one of 30 more to come."

As the week wore on, Curtis' confidence built. The night before the final round, his wife, Candace, asked him how he thought he'd do Sunday.

"I just kind of looked at her and said, 'I'm going to win.' I mean, it wasn't cocky or anything, I just felt comfortable. I wasn't nervous or anything like that. I was just having fun with what I was doing and just really took to playing the links golf that I'd never played before, and until this day, every time I come over I get excited and enjoy playing them."

After he held off Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh to win by a stroke, the magnitude of what he had just done didn't hit for quite some time.

"I think when I got in the car," he said. "You know, once you win, you get the trophy and you say a few words and then you walk around the 18th green for a little while and take some pictures, and then you come in here (to the media center) and you do this and you go out there and do a few more. I remember it was almost dark when I left here. We didn't even go back to the place we were staying. I don't even know what happened to our luggage or anything. … We got in the car and Candace was kind of quiet, and I said, 'What's the matter?' She said, 'You won't believe the zoo that's going on back home.' It really didn't sink in until I got off the plane in Cleveland. The flight was from Gatwick to Cleveland, and we came down the escalator in the baggage claim and there were thousands of people down there. That's when it really hit that this was a lot bigger deal than I thought it was."

Curtis is eight years removed from the newness of that victory. Not that that's all bad. In 2003, he and his wife stayed in an apartment that he said was no bigger than the dais he was sitting on Monday at his news conference.

This year, befitting the returning champion he is, they upgraded to a house where the rent for the week reaches five figures.

"We've got the whole compound this year," Curtis said. "We went from the outhouse to the mansion."

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